Join the Resistance

The Socialist Party is made up of working men and women -some might say "ordinary people." They are factory workers and service sector workers, schoolteachers and college professors. Some are retired. Some are young, they are old, and they are everything in between. However, it would seem that workers in large numbers should be responding to the Socialist Party's propositions but they are not and we have failed to experience the growth one would expect in a world full of chaos. That the Socialist Party is not as large and influential today as we would all like, and as it should be, is a fact, and there's no doubt about it. Does that mean that it has been wrong for all these years? The Socialist Party is based on a principle, and as with any true principle it corresponds to a reality. If a principle reflects a fact -- as, say, a principle of mathematics -- then it is true and ought to be heeded. If it does not correspond to a fact -- then it is false and misleading -- and it ought to be discarded and branded as being wrong. The Socialist Party's ideas are based the Materialist Conception of History and, in particular, the class struggle. Were we right or wrong to say that reforms and reformism would only prolong suffering, cause confusion and delay real progress? Has our prediction proved right or wrong?

There are numerous signs around us showing that the class struggle is growing more intense every day. Millions of workers have been thrown into permanent unemployment, and millions more are destined to follow as automation and "down-sizing" continue their advance. As that advance progresses, more of the excruciating poverty and misery that has afflicted large segments of the working class for decades, even generations, spreads through the land and embraces even larger segments of our class. It is a fact that the class struggle is heating up. It is a fact that being against the practice of reformism has long been correct. There has been no mitigation or amelioration if the intensity of the class through the palliative measures of gradualism and reformism. The only viable path open for the working class to follow to resolve that struggle has been socialism, only socialism and nothing less than socialism. It is a fact that the Socialist Party is the only organisation that is clear on those principles, and the only organisation capable of giving clear expression to them. Considering the truth of that, the Socialist Party should be gathering strength, and members in large numbers. Our fellow-workers should be heeding its call. Yet, they are not. Why not?

Although every other party or movement endeavours to address the social question -- be they political, religious or whatever – the one thing that they all share in common is that none of them offer any real challenge to the misconceptions, illusions, prejudices or fears of the people they attract. They have no interest in challenging them, for that would only "scare" people away. They count on and build upon those fears. They thrive on them, nurture and exploit them. That is the key to their "success." And as a result they also eventually disappoint those whom they attracted. All these false movements, have contributed greatly to the confusion and the judgement of working people, weakening their hope and dashing their courage. Hence the apathy and cynicism in the midst of misery; hence despondency despite unequalled distress. Too often people become infatuated with these other movements and organisations and that many of these other organisations claim that they are “socialist” is a deplorable fact, and one that must be confronted and exposed. To keep men and women in the dark on the class struggle is to keep them in the dark as to the way out, and cause them to be fodder for every populist politician that comes along.

If you want to do something to make sure that our history is not a repetition of the last 115 years; then join with your fellow-workers who comprise the membership of the Socialist Party.